Time Tells All
by greendragon06
Summary: Post- Series Stacey and Abby go to college at NYU together and become roommates FEMSLASH Abby/Stacey
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: I do not own any of the character's in this story. All characters belong to Ann M. Martin

This story is femslash Stacey/Abby and one-sided (for now) Char/Stacey, so if you don't like that, don't read this story. This is my first story that I have put up on here, so any input would be greatly appreciated.

Time tells all

Charlotte always looked up to her next door neighbor, Stacey. Stacey moved into town when Charlotte was six years old and was her first and favorite babysitter. As the years went on and Charlotte was too old for a babysitter, Stacey became her friend.

When Stacey went off to college, she wrote letters back and forth with Charlotte—and then when Charlotte got her own computer, they emailed each other. Charlotte enjoyed these emails because she could really open up to Stacey over the internet.

When Stacey came home during her winter break, she spent a day with Charlotte. They went to the mall and watched a movie. The most refreshing part was that they spent some time talking. Charlotte talked about her freshman year in high school and how she was in Math club and Stacey talked about the joys of college. Charlotte decided then that she was going to go to college in New York too.

The next few months were full of action, but the two managed to email each other, even if it wasn't as often as before. They talked about the most mundane things sometimes, but it was the connection that counted, not what they said.

Something changed though the next year. Stacey got busy at college and forgot to email Char as much. Their weekly emails became biweekly emails and soon, Char was emailing Stacey two or three times before she got a response. Char didn't know what to do, Stacey was more than just her former babysitter, they were friends and she didn't have many of those. So she sent Stacey one more email, a long email and swore to herself that if she didn't have a good response to it, that she would have to accept that things had changed.

In the email, Char let her friend know that it hurt to be ignored and that she didn't even know what was going on in her life anymore. She told her how much she meant to her and pleaded Stacey to give her a reason to keep writing. After she wrote the email, she sat there and read it over so many times she had it memorized but she was apprehensive in sending it. It seemed so final, which of course it was. She closed her eyes and hit the send button.

For three days, Char checked her email every chance she could, without an email from Stacey. But on the fourth day, right before she went to bed, Char received an email from Stacey. Slowly she read it through; desperate to hear that there was a good reason why Stacey hadn't been emailing her. At first it seemed like the typical excuses: school work, a social life, plain forgetfulness. But as she continued to read the email, she figured out the real reason that Stacey hadn't been emailing. Abby, was at NYU with Stacey and they had been hanging out a lot. It all made sense to Char now: she was Stacey's connection to town, her old life and now that Abby was right there at NYU, her friendship was less important.

Char kept writing to Stacey, but it wasn't the same as before. The emails were semi-frequent, but they weren't as personal as they were before. Char could tell that there was something that Stacey was keeping from her, but since they weren't close anymore, she didn't know how to call her on it.


	2. Chapter 2

Abby POV

She had transferred to NYU after having a horrible freshman year at Quinnipiac University. Hamden, although close to New Haven, one of the bigger cities in Connecticut, was not close enough to a real city like that of Boston-- or New York City, the city of cities, at least in her mind. The difference between a mere 5,000 students to the 20,000 at NYU was refreshing, and by a few weeks into the second semester, Abby knew she had to get the best grades she could so she could transfer to NYU.

The day she got to NYU, she knew that things were going to be better, from the moment that she walked into the dorms. When she walked into her dorms the first person she saw, across from her room, was Stacey. Stacey, who she hadn't talked to since 9th grade, but always, out of all her old friends from school was the one she wished she had kept in touch with. Stacey was stunning as always and fit in perfectly here. Stacey waved her over enthusiastically amazed that Stacey could still remember her.

"Abby! I didn't know you were going to NYU, it's been so long- how's life been treating you, no recent asthma emergencies I hope." She had laughed as she said the last part, as if nothing had changed, that the past 4 years with no communication was inconsequential.

"I transferred, I was going to Quinnipiac, but it was boring, small, and I was stuck in Connecticut. No major medical issues lately with me, but how about you, any diabetic emergencies lately?" To any other person who watched the scene, it might have seemed odd that they could joke about such things as asthma and diabetes, but, having ongoing health issues as early as middle school had been part of the bond that they had developed so many years ago that they were trying to cling onto.

Abby and Stacey, inevitably, saw a lot of each other throughout that year, living on the same floor, just across the hall. Even though they didn't have any classes together, they still had enough in common that they could rekindle their friendship and really learn more about each other. Stacey wasn't just the fashionable, sophisticated diabetic, as she seemed to have been categorized though it followed her through high school. Abby wasn't just the Jewish sports fanatic who had asthma; she was much more than that. Stacey, as everyone who knew her knew, was good at math and loved it, but she also loved education. Abby had developed a love for sociology. Neither of them wanted to have anything to do with college boys, each giving different reasons for it, but amounted to lies for each, denial.

Junior year, Stacey and Abby roomed together. That was when sparks began to fly, in close quarters. Stacey would suggest a movie just because she knew Abby would want to watch it and they would sit closer than they needed to during it, finding excuses to brush against each other frequently. Abby would make sure to know about the art exhibits so that she could tell Stacey about them, hoping that they could go see the exhibit, together. Late night study sessions turned into talks about life after college, where careers would send them both and promises that even if they ended up on opposite sides of the country that they would never lose contact and visit each other often. Some nights, they would stay up so late talking that they would fall asleep, leaning on each other.  
When time came to start thinking about the next school year and whether they would live on campus or move off it, which was what a lot of seniors did, Abby was at a loss at what to do. She wanted to ask Stacey to split rent on an apartment with her, but didn't know if Stacey would want to move off campus or have that responsibility with her. They had gotten close but not as close as Abby wanted. There were several times that she had thought that year that Stacey was going to kiss her, or admit that she had feelings for her, but then a cell phone would ring or Stacey would sort of trail off on what she was saying, mumbling that it wasn't really that important. Abby wanted to make the first move, she really did, but she didn't want to ruin the friendship if Stacey did not want the same thing as her, even though it seemed like she did. Abby wondered if Stacey was thinking the same thing, if she was waiting for Abby to make the first move. Other thoughts went through Abby's mind sometimes too; what if Stacey wanted to date guys when she left college, what if Stacey's reasons for not dating guys in college was not the same as her own reasons? She tried to convince herself that it was not true, but the only way to know would be if she asked Stacey about it, say that she didn't think Stacey was telling the truth. The last thing she wanted to do was call her best friend a liar. One day though, she had to know how much their friendship meant to Stacey.

"Stacey, can we talk about something, something really important to me?"

"Of course we can Abby, is something wrong?" Stacey asked the question with genuine worry heard in her voice and shown on her face.

"Nothing is really wrong. It's just… there's something that I've been keeping to myself for a while, and I wouldn't want to do or say anything that would ruin our friendship, but, there's something that I need to tell you, something that I need to know." Abby took a deep breath and looked at Stacey.

Stacey was surprised at what Abby was saying to her, "Abby, what is it that you need to tell me? Whatever it is, it definitely would not ruin our friendship. You're my best friend, no matter what."

"Well Stacey, remember how when we first saw each other again when I transferred to NYU and we started talking again? Remember how we both said we weren't going to date college boys, you because you wanted to focus on your studies and because I wanted to experience college without the distraction of a boyfriend that would take up my time? Well, I wasn't so much lying about not wanting a boyfriend; I don't want one, but, the reason over time, changed."

Stacey laughed a little and then said, "Is that it? You just wanted to tell me that you don't like guys? I knew that."

"You did?"

"Of course, its actually a bit obvious, at least to me. When we watch movies, afterwards, you never want to talk about Brad Pitt or any of the other male leads; you want to talk about how lovely the acting of Angelina was. You never came right out and said that you thought Angelina or any other actress was gorgeous, but you didn't really need to. I don't mind that you like women." What she wasn't saying was that she did too.

While Stacey was talking, Abby was relieved, she knew that Stacey wasn't homophobic, but it was still nice to hear how unimportant the detail was to her, that Stacey didn't get uncomfortable knowing it. Still, what would she think if she knew that Abby liked her? She had to find out, she wasn't about to have come this far into the conversation and not tell her.

"There's something else though Stacey. It has to do with you, Stacey, I have feelings for you."

For a minute, Stacey didn't say anything and then very quietly, almost a whisper, "I have feelings for you too."

The tension was then broken and they both laughed, there was nothing that they had to worry about. They spent the rest of the night staying up, talking about all the times that they thought one or the other was going to make a move and giggling over almost every one. They found out that neither of them had told anyone else that they liked girls.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Abby, Stacey, Charlotte or any other characters in this story. They all belong to Ann M. Martin and Scholastic books.

A/N: I don't know how I'm doing with the story so far, but I hope that I'm doing alright. This chapter is from Stacey's POV, even though the story is in 3rd person...I just write better that way. Sorry that this is shorter than the last chapter, I promise to make the next one longer.

"Who do you think you are going to tell first?"

"I don't know, maybe my sister, she's my twin, she deserves to know."

"Your sister isn't stupid, she probably already suspects, but yea, telling her would be good, what about our friends here?"

"Yea, we should tell them, eventually…but I sort of wanted to get a handle on things, this is all new for both of us, unless you've had a girlfriend that you just didn't mention before."

"No, I've never had a girlfriend. You know who I should tell though? Char. I feel really bad, my first year in college we used to email each other all the time, but now we don't as much…and I think part of it was you transferring here at the same time I was grappling with my sexual orientation."

"Well, you can send her an email in the morning and I'll help you with it if you want. Char is a good kid, I remember her."

"She's not really a kid now though, she's a junior in high school, she has her driver's license, boys have been asking her out for over a year now."

"Yea, time just really goes by fast, I can remember when you used to babysit her, it seems like it was only a few days ago, not several years ago."

The two talked a bit more before going to bed. In the morning, Stacey stayed in bed longer than normal. She didn't know how to write the email that she was going to have to write to Char. Char was a very bright girl and open-minded, but you just never know how anyone was going to react, she had nothing to base it on because as far as she knew, none of Char's friends had ever come out to her before. But eventually Abby dragged Stacey out of bed, they had breakfast and then Abby told Stacey to go write Char an email.

"You know you'll feel better once you do, then you won't have to hide things from her or anyone else you tell."

With those encouraging words, Stacey sat down to write the email. It didn't come out to smoothly or quickly at first, but it got written all the same.

Stacey,

I know I just sent you an email the other day and you haven't responded yet because you are preparing for finals, but there is something that I want to tell you. I don't know any other way to say it but to just come out with it, so here it is: I'm gay. I'm gay and I have feelings for Abby. Yes, Abby my roommate and friend from middle school. She told me it was okay to tell you that she too is gay and has feelings for me. This is new for both of us and we are right now just trying to find out the best way to tell everyone. That being said, I know all this going on in my life is not an excuse for becoming less of a friend to you, but I am sorry. I was sorry before when I stopped emailing for a while and still sorry now, even though we email more frequently, because I know that if I had been honest to you before when I started realizing that I had feelings for Abby, that I would have had someone to confide in, instead of hiding that part of that life from you, I could have been opening up to you. I really hope that you accept me for who I am, because I'm really not a different person than before, I'm just being more honest and happen to like girls and not guys. Please write back when you can.

Your friend forever,

Stacey.

So, what do you think? How will Char reply? You'll have to wait until I write it.


End file.
